Melissa is a lovely name with a variety of attached nicknames (Meli, Lissa, Lissy etc). My name has an obvious nickname which my mother and I both hate and to be honest people have very rarely attempted to call me by that name, I can probably count the occasions on one hand and I'm 30 now. However, the last person to use it was my midwife in a text, so I'd better set her straight...I don't want to be in labour thinking 'stop calling me x, it's not my blo**y name!'

However, dombe prepared for Mel, just in case. DD1 has a nickname, a shortened version of her name, which I hate. I thought I would be able to influence it by insisting on another NN shortened version but no. No no no no. Think Lizzie vs Beth for Elizabeth, that sort of thing.